Food preference, repellent and attractive effects of 14-kinds of spices to the rust red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum Herbst

Abstract

This study aim to determine the food and oviposition preference for rust red flour beetle to the different types of spices, also the attractive and repellent effects of the spices to the adults and larvae of the beetle.

Results showed that adults and larvae of the insect preferred ginger spice than the others, with a percentage of 32 and 16%, respectively, when given a free choice for feeding. On the other hand adult beetle preferred ginger for egg laying which and gave the highest number (9.66) after 10 days exposure in the free choice. All spices showed attractive effect to adults except cardamom and roselle while only roselle showed repellent effect to larvae.